Garment stiffener tips



April 21, 1964 N. A. SPENCE 3,129,435

GARMENT STIFFENER TIPS Filed Feb, 27. 1961 United States, Patent ()fiice 3,129,435 Patented Apr. 21, 1964 Claims priority, application Great Britain Feb. 29, 1960 V 3 Claims. (Cl. 2-257) This invention is concerned with the tips of resilient material which are applied to the ends of strip-form stiffeners or bones (for example strip steels or flattened spiral steels) in garments. Typical of these tips are those made of plastic materials such as polyethylene, and in the ensuing description reference will, for convenience, be confined to tips made of plastics.

These tips, which are sometimes detachably mounted on, or are permanently secured to, the strip stiffeners, for example being bonded thereto, have a first function of providing a soft end to the (usually) metal strip, thereby protecting the garment against tearing or like damage by the metal in the course of use. A second function of these tips is to afford means for locating the metal strip quickly and easily in position in the garment, for which purpose the tips, being of puncturable material, can readily be sewn into the garment.

Moreover, a plastic tip of this character can be extended beyond the metal stifiener to form a reinforcement in its own right, that is to say a more resilient extension of the parent metal strip such as is often desirable in a garment, but is not otherwise practicable, for instance to prolong a stiffening effect, albeit of a mild character, virtually to the edge of a garment.

Difliculties are, however, encountered in using plastic tips of the various kinds so far known. The hitherto usual solid tip which forms a simple extension of the metal strip, being more flexible than this strip, bends in use along a line immediately adjoining the metal end and eventually is weakened and fractures at this line, thereby allowing the rough metal end to poke through the plastic and damage the garment.

With the object of avoiding this shortcoming, in the present invention a plastic tip for the purpose specified is formed at one end with a pocket for receiving the end of a strip stiffener and, adjoining this pocket, with an internal cavity which extends from the latter deeper into and along the body of the tip.

Such an internal cavity renders the tip more resilient than would be the case with a solid article of the same material, and at the same time displaces the zone of natural bending of the tip away from the end of the metal strip, thereby avoiding the possibility of fracture of the plastic at this end and the attendant disadvantages.

The degree of flexibility and the offsetting of the bending zone can be readily varied by appropriate shaping or dimensioning of the cavity in the tip, so as to suit the latter to many varied purposes.

The foregoing attributes are, moreover, secured without the contour of the outer surface of the tip being affected in any respect, so that the latter can be sewn normally without any detriment to the needle or the formation of stitches fastening it to a garment.

The cavity can readily be formed simultaneously with the moulding of the tip by using a removable core (which is shaped to simultaneously form the pocket receiving the end of the metal strip) in a mould.

Preferably the body of the tip is of spatulate form, having plane or substantially plane front and rear faces, and the internal cavity is of smaller Width than the pocket, so as to provide shoulders for location of the strip pushed into the pocket.

Advantageously the cavity is straight sided and extends for a substantial fraction, e.g. one half, of the distance between the adjacent end of the pocket and the outer end of the tip body. Further, to promote the required displacement of the zone of bending of the tip, this cavity is made of a width and a depth suificient to remove a significant fraction of the volume of the tip body. Thus, the width and the depth are respectively substantially proportions, e.g. one third in each case, of the width and the depth of the tip body at this part.

Apart from the aforesaid internal cavity, a tip according to this invention can be made of various shapes according to particular requirements, and very conveniently may have its side edges tapered to the outer end thereof and/or be of a slightly tapering thickness. The outer end is preferably rounded.

As indicated above the tip can be made of various materials and polyethylene has been found particularly suitable for the purpose.

Such a tip is preferably pre-moulded, e.g. by injection moulding, fitted on to the parent metal strip and bonded thereto by the application of heat, which produces a softening of the plastic and results in shrinking of the latter on to the end of the strip. In the case of a flattened spiral strip, the softened plastic will flow and key into the interstices in the metal to provide a very firm grip.

The invention is illustrated by Way of example in the accompanying drawings in which FIGURE 1 is a plan view of a spiral steel strip stiffener provided with end caps in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention,

FIGURE 2 is a cross section through a part of this assembly, being taken on the line IIII in FIGURE 1,

FIGURE 3 is a diagrammatic representation of a mould and core used to form the tip seen in FIGURE 1,

FIGURE 4 is a cross section on IV-IV of FIGURE 3, and

FIGURE 5 is a spiral steel strip.

In FIGURE 1 of the drawings the spiral steel is designated 1 and has blunt ends which are received in each case in a tip 2 of a resilient plastic, preferably polyethylene. For this purpose the tip is provided with a rectangular pocket 3 which opens at the inner end of the tip and is adjoined at its opposite end by a cavity 4. This latter is of less width than the pocket 3, thus providing shoulders 5 against which the end of the steel 1 is butted when the latter is encapped by the tip. As will be observed from FIGURES l and 2, the cavity 4 is of approximately one third of the width of the tip body at this part, and similarly is of about one third the depth or thickness of the latter. It extends about halfway from the inner end of the pocket 3 to the rounded outer end 6 of the tip body. It is found that the amount of material thereby removed enables the zone of bending of the tip, when mounted on the steel, to be displaced to about the axis X-X, and away from the end of the steel 1, and this without substantially impairing the resistance of the tip to fracture.

It will also be observed that the tip 2 is tapered both in width and thickness towards its outer end in FIG- URES 1 and 2, but that in the modification illustrated in FIGURE 5, which is otherwise generally similar, the tip 2 is parallel sided. In this latter case the cavity 4' does not extend along the free portion of the tip to the same degree as the cavity 4 in FIGURE 1, but here again the tip 2' is advantageously tapered sufficiently to increase the resiliency of the free portion of the tip. In both embodiments illustrated, the tip is of spatulate form and the front and rear faces are generally plane.

FIGURES 3 and 4 illustrate a method of moulding the tip 2 seen in FIGURES l and 2. This apparatus comprises a split mould 7 with a moulding cavity 8.

plan view of another form of tipped Introduced into this cavity, in preparation for an injection shot, is a core 9 which is stepped at its leading end so as to provide a neck 10 corresponding to the cavity 4. The plastic material, for example polyethylene, is injected through 11.

I claim:

1. For mounting on at least one end of a stilfener strip to form a garment stiffener, a flexible tip for a strip form garment stifi'ener comprising a strip-like, flat, smooth faced body of flexible plastic provided with an internal bore extending axially part-way through its length from one end, leaving a substantial part of the body impcrforate, this bore being of stepped cross sectional size for a part of the length and constituting a pocket of uniform cross-section at the open end of the bore followed by a narrower channel or uniform width and substantially smaller than the width of the pocket, the junction between said pocket and said channel being defined by shoulders of the body to locate a stiffener strip, inserted in the pocket, against penetration into said channel, whereby the Zone of natural bending of said tip is displaced along said channel away from said shoulders.

2. A tip as claimed in claim 1, in which the channel extends for substantially one-half of the distance between the adjacent end of the pocket and the opposite end of the tip body, and is of a width and depth respectively substantially one third of the width and depth of the tip body.

3. A garment stiffener comprising a metal strip and, bonded to one end at least of said strip, a tip having a flat, smooth faced body of flexible plastic provided with an internal bore extending axially part-way through its length from one end, leaving a substantial part of the body imperforate, this bore being of stepped cross section size for a part of this length, thereby to provide a pocket at the open end of the bore followed by a narrower channel of substantially smaller width than the pocket, the junction between said pocket and said channel being defined by shoulders of the body to locate said metal strip, inserted in the pocket, against penetration into said channel.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 702,559 Hunt June 17, 1902 2,550,246 Hatch et a1. Apr. 24, 1951 2,908,913 Sobel Oct. 20, 1959 2,938,215 Schwartz May 31, 1960 

1. FOR MOUNTING ON AT LEAST ONE END OF A STIFFENER STRIP TO FORM A GARMENT STIFFENER, A FLEXIBLE TIP FOR A STRIP FORM GARMENT STIFFENER COMPRISING A STRIP-LIKE, FLAT, SMOOTH FACED BODY OF FLEXIBLE PLASTIC PROVIDED WITH AN INTERNAL BORE EXTENDING AXIALLY PART-WAY THROUGH ITS LENGTH FROM ONE END, LEAVING A SUBSTANTIAL PART OF THE BODY IMPERFORATE, THIS BORE BEING OF STEPPED CROSS SECTIONAL SIZE FOR A PART OF THE LENGTH AND CONSTITUTING A POCKET OF UNIFORM CROSS-SECTION AT THE OPEN END OF THE BORE FOLLOWED BY A NARROWER CHANNEL OF UNIFORM WIDTH AND SUBSTANTIALLY SMALLER THAN THE WIDTH OF THE POCKET, THE JUNCTION BETWEEN SAID POCKET AND SAID CHANNEL BEING DEFINED BY SHOULDERS OF THE BODY TO LOCATE A STIFFENER STRIP, INSERTED IN THE POCKET, AGAINST PENETRATION INTO SAID CHANNEL, WHEREBY THE ZONE OF NATURAL BENDING OF SAID TIP IS DISPLACED ALONG SAID CHANNEL AWAY FROM SAID SHOULDERS. 